Just Catching up

Ok, just so no one freaks out about this and thinks they are behind, Jana and I are posting our stuff for the last week of the first book. We only had the one week left before I left for England so we wanted to finish it up before we started the new book.
This is my stuff from the last week of the previous book.

"Chapter 10: God's Perfection"

First, I want to let you know the things in this chapter that I really like and really stood out to me. I had tons of underlining in this chapter. LOL
-I absolutely loved the section about losing the Majesty of God. This section really spoke to me. " This is the age of the common man and along with the common man has come the common god. But along with the common man, I say is the common god, and with it the loss of the whole concept of majesty." (p. 180)

-the section on losing a sense of worship and reverance was also really great. I loved this quote, "The modern Christian has lost a sense of worship and of course, reverance as well. He has LOST HIS ABILITY TO WITHDRAW INWARDLY AND COMMUNE IN THE SECRET PLACE WITH GOD IN THE SHRINE OF HIS OWN HIDDEN SPIRIT!"

-In the section on the No degrees in God, I was once again drawn back to the early chapters in the book. The thing that we really liked about God not extended into Space but instead God containing Space. I loved what Tozer says here, "Gd is not limited in Himself, he is limited in us. The inability of God to get through to us is not due to the imperfectino of the Great God, but the imperfection of the man to whom He is trying to give the truth."

-one of my favorite topics is theology. His definition of theology is spot on and should make us all shutter at how we really approach the subject. It seems to me that most people are either like.. blah boring old theology with old men and old books that I do not understand.. or they see it as some intellectual thing that is only for those who are smart or want to cause debate. I loved his defninition here. "Theology is a beautiful thing, beautiful because it is the mind reasoning about God. It is the mind down on its knees in state of breathless devotion, reasoning about God." Wow!

-Finally, the very last section of this chapter was very good. I love that he calls us out on our view of God and how we transfer that view to others. My favorite part was this, "What good is all our busy religion if God isnt in it? What good is it if we've lost majesty, reverance, worship-awareness of the divine? What good is it if we've lost a sense of the Presence and the ability to retreat within our own hearts and meet God in the garden? If we've lost that, why build another church? Why make more converts to an effete Christianity? Why bring people to follow after a Savior so far off that He doesn't own them? We try to promote religion, forgetting that it rests on the character of God. if I have a low concept of God, my religion can only be a cheap, watery affair. But if my concept of God is worthy of God then it can be noble and dignified: it can be reverent, profound, beautiful." Amazing!

Now I will answer some of the questions. I will label them under them subtitles.

Our Gains and Losses
Things Tozer listed as Gains were: increased church attendance, more people identifying themselves as Christian, growth in Christian literature, increased popularity of the Gospel, better communication, great strides in worldwide evangelism
Here are the things that I believe we could add in today's culture: television, radio, and internet evangelism, Mega Churches, The gospel being preached to the furthest ends of the earth.


No Awareness of the Eternal
1. Losses as defined by Tozer were: awareness of the invisible and eternal, consciousness of the divine presence and divine majesty, loss of reverence, loss of unity in the body, no moment of stillness, no Holy FEAR.
I believe this accurately describes some of the losses but I think there are many more than that. In fact, I believe some of the gains could actually be losses now. Because we have an increase in the number of people calling themselves Christians then we have a lost definition of what that word truly means. The expansion of radio, internet, and television evangelism has led to lots of false prophets and falst truth being propagated as Christian truth.

2. Tozer's definition of worship: the believers ability to withdraw inwardly and commune in the secret place with God in the shrine of his own hidden spirit.
I think this was a very accurate description of worship and I would venture to say that there is not much of that actually occurring in the average worship service. We have a lot of external appearance of worship but at the sacrifice of the internal experience of worship.

What is perfection
1. My own definitin of perfection would be: having no flaw, complete excellance. I believe his idea that it is a relative word means it sets a standard of measurement and since there is no degree or measurement to God it is hard to use it to describe him. It is comparitive to other terms... to what can we compare God?

No Degrees in God
1a. These words suggest comparison. We can not compare God to anything so that makes these words incapable of describing him.
1b. Because there is no other word. You cannot find the language that will tell what God is so God does the best he can, considering who and what we are, t make himself known to us. God is not limited in himself, he is limited in us.

2. Psalm 50:2 "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath Shined" In the study guide he talked about why Zion was beautiful... because of the Shekinah Glory of God. Shekinah Glory is a Hebrew word meaning "he caused to dwell." All things are more beautiful in his presence or dwelling, in the light of his Glory. The farther away from his presence, the more ugly things will appear becasue we are not dwelling in him.


What Honors God is Beautiful
1. As I already stated, I loved his definition for theology. And yes, when I am doing what his definition states, I can not get enough of it. It is sad and tragic to me, that for so long, our churches have made it seem as though only leaders in the church should be worried about theology. Only those smart, really Holy people should care about that. That is so sad. Should we not all desire to be those Holy People. To truly KNOW our God.

2a. Some of the wrong concepts of heaven are: Streets of gold, crowns and jewels, mansions, no pain or suffering. It is like we are humanizing heaven. I mean will all those earthly treasures matter when I see Jesus! An eternity worshipping my Savior. It is not about my reward.. My reward was Jesus! My reward is that he saved a SINNER such as me.

2b. HOw do we bring ourselves back to the right concept? It comes down to whether we spend our lives seeking after beauty or ugliness.


Nothing bad is Beautiful
1. Quoting Tozer: "it is possible for an unholy thing to be pretty or attractive, even charming. But it is not possible for it be beautiful. Only that which is holy,can be beautiful ultimately." How can something be pretty, charming, or attractive, without being beautiful? I believe that Beautiful is a form of perfection. Pretty, attractive, and charming are human terms that are less than the perfection of beautiful. Being Holy is Perfection so anything less than perfection could be adequate but not be Holy.

Nothing Wonderful in the World
Tozer suggest that we are too enamored by the things of the world to draw close to God. I like what the study guide said about this. "That is why the world has nothing to offer us, becasue only God is beautiful and wonderful. We spend too much time and effort on mortal things, when God wants to GIVE US HIS PRESENCE!


Overall I thought this chapter was fabulous. Of course, it is things that we have discussed in conversation so it is something we already saw a need for. It was a great summary to the book and I can not wait to start the next one. I just read the intro and it is very similiar to this last chapter. Looking forward to seeing what you thought.